1.31.13 Editor’s Desk

1.31.13 Editor’s Desk

SteveBlanchardHeadshotResidents of Hillsborough County are incensed by the decision from their commissioners to reject a domestic partnership registry that would have protected unmarried couples in the county. Their mean-spirited 4-3 vote was doused in prejudice and soaked in re-election campaigning simply because it would have afforded a handful of rights to same-sex couples.

While those commissioners voting against the ordinance didn’t admit to that, their sentiments were clear. Hillsborough County is still an unwelcome place for LGBTs, especially in areas outside of the welcoming embrace of the Tampa city limits. If the registry was strictly for straight, unmarried elderly residents, it would have passed with little discussion.

The Jan. 24 vote shouldn’t surprise those of us familiar with the history there. This is the county, remember, that banned the recognition of all Pride events after a display of LGBT literature at a library offended then-commissioner Ronda Storms’ senses. This is also the commission that revoked the inclusion of sexual orientation in its human rights ordinance protections in 1995 and has yet to correct that embarrassing decision.

We all know someone who lives within Hillsborough County’s borders. We should feel sympathy for those people, regardless of their sexual orientation, for having to live under the leadership of uninformed individuals only act as if they truly care about the well-being of all of Hillsborough County’s residents.

Four commissioners became tools of the far-right group The Florida Family Association, which encouraged its members to email and call commissioners, asking them to oppose the ordinance. Their scare tactics and prejudice worked, and convinced four people to turn their backs on their own constituencies by rejecting a provision that would make visiting a loved one in a county hospital easier or allowing someone to dictate their own emergency contact person.

Commissioner Sandy Murman said she was fighting growing government to support her no-vote. The argument is ridiculous, since the already-existing County Clerk’s office would have handled the registry, much like the Pinellas County Clerk will later this year and the City of Tampa’s clerk’s office has for eight months.

Commissioner Victor Crist showed his complete lack of understanding of the measure when he actually said a countywide registry would give people a false sense of security, since the registry potentially wouldn’t be recognized by other counties. He also confessed a fear of fraud, saying that without a way to verify someone’s relationship, “anybody” could sign up for the registry.

Both Crist and Murman added that providing a county program to protect unmarried couples isn’t their responsibility, since power of attorney specialists and legal documentation can be obtained to get the same rights afforded by a DPR. This was after residents shared the story of Janice Langbehn, who was denied access to see her dying partner in a Miami hospital despite having paperwork filed in their home state.

And possibly most embarrassing were the thoughts shared by Commissioner Al Higginbotham, who bluntly said that while he believed we should treat others as we want to be treated, he recognized “thousands of years of precedence” regarding the definition of marriage as a one man/one woman relationship. If those are his beliefs, why does he support Hurricane preparedness plans, since Biblical teachings show that God uses weather to wipe out populations who misbehave? Who are we to combat weather?

That commission embarrassed its constituency and put the state’s fourth largest county in the “strange news” category with its latest vote. The vote should also embarrass the City of Tampa and its residents, since the progressive and forward-thinking city is, ironically, the Hillsborough County seat.

If there is a bright side to this debacle, it’s that the Hillsborough County community is again galvanized and has reintroduced plans to make Hillsborough a more welcoming and progressive county. Plans to unseat the four dissenting commissioners have already began and seeing the evolution of Mark Sharpe, who introduced the registry after voting in support of the Pride ban in 2005, shows that education can produce results.

With progress on the horizon at the national level President Obama mentioned Stonewall in his inaugural address and expressed support for marriage equality it can be frustrating to find so much work to be done locally.

But the bottom line is that it must be done, and four commissioners have reminded us of that.

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